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D-Lib Magazine
Katy Börner | Indiana University, USA |
Sally-Jo Cunningham | University of Waikato, NZ |
Christine Borgman | UCLA, USA |
Matt Jones | University of Waikato, NZ |
Hanna Stelmaszewska | Middlesex University, UK |
Tamara Sumner | University of Colorado, USA |
Yin Leng Theng | Nanyang TU, Singapore |
Harold Thimbleby | University College London, UK |
Contributed by:
Kristine R. Brancolini
Director, Digital Library Program
Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana, USA
<[email protected]>
On the afternoon of July 18, Kristine Brancolini and Javed Mostafa co-chaired a workshop entitled "Developing Digital Libraries Education and Training Programs," which was attended by fifteen participants. The program featured a keynote speaker and four additional speakers. Each of the four speakers submitted two-page papers, which were distributed at the workshop. They can be found on the workshop Web site: <http://lair.indiana.edu/jcdlwsdledu.html>.
The goal of the workshop was to help formulate the essential elements of a digital library curriculum or training program, focusing upon theoretical knowledge and practical skills. The five speakers covered the topic from a variety of perspectives. One pleasant surprise was the number of international speakers and registrants, emphasizing the global need to address these issues.
Keynote speaker Ingeborg Solvberg from the Department of Computer and Information Science at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology described her institution's digital library education in her presentation "Digital Library Education: WHY-HOW-WHAT." Unlike many programs in the United States, Dr. Solvberg's program requires a computer science background first, then provides coursework in digital libraries covering information, documents, and collections; information seeking; information organization; mark-up languages and Unicode; copyright issues; metadata; information objects; evaluation; system architecture; and more. The program primarily educates technical staff, not librarians.
The next speaker, Kelsey Libner from the University of North Carolina brought a student perspective to the workshop. As a recent graduate of the University of Michigan's School of Information, Mr. Libner's paper, "Architect-Builders Needed for Digital Libraries," argued that digital library education and training should be founded on three disciplines: architecture, design, and implementation. In his presentation, Mr. Libner analyzed a typical digital library task, breaking out the component skills and knowledge required to complete this task.
Péter Jacsó, from the Information Science Program at the University of Hawaii, described his course in digital librarianship in "Design and Implementation of a Course on Digital Librarianship." Dr. Jacsó's course combines information for the reference librarian who must use digital information resources with information for librarians who might be creating these digital information resources. He noted the need to teach all librarians about digital libraries, whether or not they will eventually work in digital library programs.
Shalini R. Urs, from the Department of Library and Information Science at the University of Mysore in India presented a comprehensive look at digital library education at another international institution, this time from the librarian's perspective, in her paper, "Redefining, Reinventing, and Repositioning the Information Professionals and Digital Libraries in the New Information Landscape." Her program provides an interesting comparison with Dr. Solvberg's technical orientation.
The final speaker, Cavan McCarthy, from the School of Library and Information Science at Louisiana State University, described and demonstrated student digital library projects as part of his presentation "Selection Criteria Used in Student Project Sites, Created during Library Courses." Dr. McCarthy outlined the opportunities as well as the constraints presented by partnering with archives to provide practical digital library experiences to library school students.
As follow-up to the workshop, the chairs will develop a proposal to create a specialization in digital libraries for the School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University. The goal will be to design a suite of courses and institutes that will meet the needs of both students and working professional who would like to expand their knowledge and skills in the field of digital libraries. The workshop speakers provided ideas that might be incorporated into such a program.
We would like to thank our presenters and the workshop program committee.
The committee members were:
University of Pittsburgh, September 4, 2002 - "The Digital Research Library, a department of the University of Pittsburgh Library System, now provides online access to historic star data and calculations compiled and published by the Allegheny Observatory. The Parallax Project Website (http://digital.library.pitt.edu/parallax) makes available over five decades of the Observatorys valuable research, which represents one of the largest systematic, ground-based studies of star distances ever conducted."
"Prior to the Parallax Project Website, public access to this stellar data was available only through a limited number of deteriorating copies of the Publications of the Allegheny Observatory of the University of Pittsburgh. This ten-volume set, published between 1910 and 1969, primarily documented the observations of the Photographic Parallax Program. Frank Schlesinger, director of the Observatory from 1905-1920, established this program to measure a stars distance from the Sun (i.e., a parallax) using the photographic record of blue and ultraviolet light emitted by the brightest stars visible from Pittsburgh. The Publications also contain reports on the methodologies of astronomical observation, articles about innovative models of calculating star positions, and descriptions of observational instrumentation."
"Schlesingers Parallax Program put Pittsburgh on the map as a center for high-precision astronometry research and warranted the construction of the 30� Thaw Refractor telescope. Built almost entirely in Pittsburgh by John A. Brashear in 1912, it remains the third largest refractor in the United States. Parallax information gathered from the Thaw refractor continues to be a fundamental basis for modern searches for extra-solar planets."
"According to Dr. George Gatewood, current director of the Allegheny Observatory, 'It is through the statistical investigation of this data, in comparison to those of other observatories, that our understanding of the intrinsic characteristics of the stars was obtained. The data is important in the study of the compilation catalogs to which it contributed, to the weighted mean parallax of modern studies of these stars, and to the understanding of the strengths and limitations of the program, which contributed so profoundly to the determination of the scale of the Universe.'."
"The Digital Research Library has extended the life of this information and made it more widely available to the research community through an extensive digitization project. The pages of the Publications have been converted into scanned images for viewing so that the online material replicates the layout and format of the original volumes. Users of the digital Publications can also search the content of these volumes for such star identifiers as Allegheny Observatory running number, star name, right ascension, declination, and parallax value. The project also produced two sets of preservation reprints of the Publications to replace the highly acidic and brittle originals."
"The information contained in these scientifically and historically important texts will be more broadly available to an expanded audience of professional and amateur astronomers, high school and college students, and historians of science. A powerful search capability, coupled with important contextual information about the stars, adds tremendous value to the online version of these texts released through the Digital Research Librarys Parallax Project Website."
"The Digital Research Library has been a department of the University of Pittsburghs Library System since 1998. It serves the University and the general public through the creation and maintenance of Web-accessible digital research collections. The Digital Research Library has a successful history of freely delivering texts, map images, encoded archival finding aids, bibliographies, and databases to the Internet community."
For more information, see the Parallax Project Website at &l;thttp://digital.library.pitt.edu>, or contact Edward Galloway, Coordinator, University of Pittsburgh <[email protected]>."
Processes of Negotiation are in Transition for Libraries, Publishers and Intermediaries
August 26 - "Ingenta Institute, the independent research organization of the scholarly communications industry, today announced some preliminary early findings from its comprehensive international study into the impact of site licensing and consortia developments on the scholarly communication process. 'Early results indicate that consortia site licensing is in a state of flux,' says David Brown, Co-ordinator of the Ingenta Institute, 'and that its future is dependent upon a number of factors.'"
"Analyzing the impact of consortia dealing on libraries and publishers in the US and Europe in two separate studies, renowned information expert Donald W. King, Professor at The School of Information Sciences, Pittsburgh University and UK-based research consultancy Key Perspectives Ltd identified similar trends despite the relatively recent creation of consortia in Europe. Headline findings include:
For more information, see the Ingenta web site at <http://www.ingenta.com/institute/>.
Announcement from Philip Pothen, Joint Information Systems Commmitte (JISC): August 27, 2002.
"Following the successful evaluation of the Resource Guide for the Social Sciences and the Resource Guide for the Arts and Humanities pilot projects, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has rolled out the initiative to the following subject areas:"
"The purpose of the Resource Guides is to provide an overview and guide, both in online and in printed forms, to the key online collections and resources (not only JISC collections and resources, but also those of other key organisations) in a particular subject area, to fund a full-time Resource Guide Adviser to undertake a range of promotional and training activities, and to provide a conduit between subject communities in Higher Education and resource providers."
"All seven Resource Guide Advisers are now in place and are keen to hear from information professionals, subject librarians, lecturers, staff development officers, IT support staff and any others who have a specific subject remit within their universities and who wish to communicate with the advisers about online resources and their promotion within their subject areas."
"Resource Guide Advisers are currently planning their programme, including the production of Resource Guides, conference activities and training events for the upcoming academic year. This initiative depends on community involvement, and we would encourage all those who have responsibility for the delivery of online resources within a particular subject area, to get in touch with their respective Resource Guide Adviser."
"The full list of subjects, along with the Resource Guide Advisers and their contact details, are as follows:
For more information contact the above Guide Advisers or contact Philip Pothen at JISC at <[email protected]>.
News Release: August 22, 2002. "WASHINGTON, D.C.� For the second year, the Council on Library and Information Resources is offering fellowships funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support dissertation research in the humanities in original sources."
"Applications postmarked by December 1, 2002 (November 15, 2002, if mailed from outside the United States) will be considered for approximately 10 awards to be announced by April 1, 2003, for use beginning between June 1 and September 1, 2003."
For a description of the purposes of the program and more information how to apply for the fellowships, see the full press release at <http://www.clir.org/pubs/press/2002_mellfell2.html>.
Press release from English Heritage: 22 August 2002.
"English Heritage has announced the foundation of a new Archaeological Archives Forum which aims to open up generations of invaluable research to a wider public."
"English Heritage is among a number of heritage organisations joining forces in the Forum to tackle the job of making archaeological archives, with their wealth of finds, photographs and information, easier to access."
"Kathy Perrin, responsible for archaeological archives policy at English Heritage and Secretary of the Forum, said: 'Archaeological archives are amongst our greatest assets but their wealth is too often untapped and their potential unexplored. Stuck away in basements or remote storerooms, they can be inaccessible or even thought of as a nuisance. Once written up in academic publications or client reports the mass of material and information they represent seldom sees the light of day. The Forum hopes to change this by creating new standards of access and deposition. We want the archives to be a source of exciting interactive learning and research for everyone, from schoolchildren to professors.'"
"High on the Forum's agenda are the provision of archaeological resource centres, digital access and archiving and training in post excavation archiving. The Museum of London has provided a blueprint with the opening in February of its London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre (LAARC) in Mortimer Wheeler House."
See the full press release at <http://www.britarch.ac.uk/archives/news1.html> or visit the Archaeological Archives Forum website at <http://www.britarch.ac.uk/archives/index.html>.
"Glasgow, August 20th - Today, at the Conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) in Glasgow, Elsevier Science and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National Library of the Netherlands, announce a groundbreaking new agreement in relations between publishers and libraries world-wide in the area of electronic archiving. The Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB) will become the first official digital archive for Elsevier Science journals. This means the library will receive digital copies of all Elsevier journals made available on its web platform, ScienceDirect, which are approximately 1,500 journals covering all areas of science, technology and medicine, and exceeding 7 TB of data. For everybody involved in research and the communication of research resultsauthors, researchers, librarians and publishers alikethis is a decisive step forward in keeping digital archives available in perpetuity."
For more information, contact:
Karen Hunter, Senior Vice President Strategy, Elsevier Science
Tel: +1 212 633 3787, Fax: +1 212 633 3764,
Email: <[email protected]>
August 20, 2002. "GLASGOW � The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today presented BibloRed (Capital Network of Public Libraries) of Bogotá, Colombia, with the 2002 Access to Learning Award for their exceptional efforts to expand access to information, computers and the Internet for all people. BibloRed also received a USD $1 million grant to expand further the innovative work they are undertaking to provide access to information technology for the public."
See the full press release at <http://www.clir.org/pubs/press/2002_gatesrecip.html>.
"The statement, entitled Preserving the Memory of the World in Perpetuity was agreed by the Joint Steering Group, established by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the International Publishers Association (IPA)."
"...Concern has been growing that much digital material has already been lost, because no attempt has been made to preserve it. In many countries there are long-established arrangements to preserve print materials for future generations. But this is often not the case for digital information. As a result, many electronic publications will not be preserved unless specific steps are taken to ensure their survival."
"The statement commits both organisations to work together on joint initiatives to study the3 technical, economic and policy issues surrounding digital preservation."
See the full press release at <http://www.ifla.org/V/press/ifla-ipa02.htm>.
"London, 8 August 2002 -- Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries has launched a UK-wide consultation exercise to identify clearly the ways it can most effectively benefit the whole library and information domain."
"Until now most of Resource's library related work has focused on public libraries. This is in large part due to the sheer size and scale of the popular People's Network, coupled with the need to prioritise the implementation of the Building on Success strategy for public libraries. Now, Resource wishes to see what can be realistically accomplished across the whole of the library and information community, ranging from school, further and higher education libraries, through health, prison and workplace libraries to the book trade and internet providers."
The first step for Resource in this important project will be to consult policy makers, key practitioners andprofessional associations (especially CILIP) and discuss withthem the role Resource might play to help maximise the contribution that the domain makes tothe UK's economic, social and cultural well-being. This consultation process has been anmed WILIP - Wider Information and Library Issues Project.."
"The Resource website can be viewed at <http://www.resource.gov.uk/>."
New Haven, CT. July 31, 2002: "The Yale Library announced that its proposal to lead and coordinate a collaborative database project that will make available important Middle Eastern resources has been awarded a U. S. Department of Education Title VI grant under the "Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access" program. Project OACIS (Online Access to Consolidated Information on Serials) will be funded for three years, at a level of $145,000 in the first year and comparable amounts thereafter. The Library is adding its own staff and technology resources to this significant cost-sharing arrangement.".
"Associate University Librarian Ann Okerson described the project as one that will create a publicly and freely accessible, continuously updated listing of Middle East journals and serials, including those available in print, microform, and online. The listing, which will be available on the Web, will identify libraries that own the materials as well as exact holdings, initially for Arabic and English language titles and then for an ever-expanding group of Middle Eastern languages. As it develops, Project OACIS will also serve as a gateway to those serials by enhancing content delivery of those titles.".
"Project OACIS is international in scope. While initial titles reports will be contributed by US partner libraries, the database will expand to include titles and holdings of targeted partner institutions in Europe and the Middle East. The project design includes interactions with teachers of foreign languages and with librarians in Middle Eastern countries who will offer input on design and functionality. The records will be searchable in non-Roman alphabets.".
"Yale Library staff, along with faculty of the Middle East Studies Council of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, have been developing Project OACIS over several years, in a commitment to provide access to the literature of this increasingly important region of the world for a wide range of educational, government, and commercial institutions. The aim is to develop a better understanding of the varied economies, politics, languages, and cultures of the Middle East.".
"Yale University was one of the earliest higher education institutions formally to study the Middle East, and its Library collections and other educational resourcesand facultyare among the strongest in the world.".
"The leadership of the project will be shared by AUL Ann Okerson as Principal Investigator, Kimberly Parker as Co-PI and Technical Director, and Simon Simon Samoeil, Near East Curator, as Project Manager and Director of Networking and Relationships. The US libraries committed to participating in the project include: Cornell, University of Michigan, Ohio State, University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas, and University of Washington. The principal European partner is the Universit�ts-und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt. Middle Eastern partners have been identified in Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria.".
"Information about the OACIS project will be available at
For additional information, contact:
Ann Okerson, Associate University Librarian
203-432-1764, <[email protected]> or
Kimberly Parker, Head of Electronic Collections
203-432-0067, <[email protected]> or
Simon Samoeil, Near East Curator
203-432-1799, <[email protected]>
(30 September 2002, the following correction has been made to this column: The name of the point of contact for the press release about the University of Pittsburgh library system has been corrected from Edward Gallagher to Edward Galloway.)
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DOI: 10.1045/september2002-inbrief


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WORK is underway on an £8m housing complex in Winchester.
Last year city councillors approved plans for 14 homes at the former Peugeot garage on St Cross Road, with former housing boss, Cllr Ian Tait, welcoming the development as a "landmark" building for the city.
The Bargate Homes project is slated for completion by summer 2015 and was funded in part by a loan from NatWest.
Managing director of Bargate Homes, Angus Cook, approached Ian Cooke of NatWest for assistance with funding and agreed on a property development loan of £4.7m.
The 2,700sq metre site previously comprised several commercial premises, including a Peugeot garage and a furniture store.
It also includes a former 19th century coach house which will be converted into two family homes, while a new four-storey building will provide nine flats, alongside a newly-built terrace of three four-bedroom houses.
Planning officers argued that demolition of commercial buildings in favour of new homes would clash with council policy, but in July councillors voted the application through.
Mr Cook said: "Ian at NatWest has been extremely supportive and, through what have been fairly horrific times for the property industry, the bank has continued to support us."
Mr Cooke, a relationship director at the bank, said: "Bargate has gone from strength to strength and as well as building beautiful homes, the company has created local jobs and will make a significant contribution to the local economy. We're delighted to have supported this project."
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subset: commoncrawl


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We told you yesterday Doc Rivers said the Lakers "still have not beaten our starting five," implying that if Kendrick Perkins had been healthy for Game 7 the outcome would have been different.
The Lakers were quiet on that. Phil Jackson probably didn't notice, Kobe Bryant probably mentally filed that away in the "anger/motivation" file to pull out when he needs it. But no public comments.
Until Ron Artest answered the call on twitter.
Boston lost to lakers because of Kendrick Perkins injury. What about in 08 when Bynum was injured. What about this year Bynum was injured
What about Kobe played with a broke finger .... What about Ron artest defense When the Boston staff said Ron artest was too slow
Doc got one million excuses.. Just come back this season a take what you want...
The lakers with Bynum in the playoffs healthy has not lost The same way whoever whatever hasn't Let's not mention the stats on lock down
Ron Artest is right. The "what if" injury game is a rabbit hole if you go down it. What if Andrew Bogut had been healthy for the Bucks this season? What if Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming had stayed healthy in Houston? What if LeBron's elbow had been fine against Boston... okay, bad example there. But you get the idea.
What did Yoda teach us? "Do, or do not. There is no try." The Jedi master would say the same thing about injuries. And you don't argue with Yoda.


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The Persian Gulf island nation of Bahrain erupted on February 14 when protesters gathered at the "roundabout," or Pearl Square, in the capital city of Manama. A country of one million, Bahrain's citizens constitute only half the population, the rest being foreign workers. Tensions are intense between Shias–who constitute 70 percent of all citizens–and the Sunni foreign workers who, as allies of the Sunni King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifah, are given preferential treatment in jobs, housing and other privileges.
I've been in touch with friends in Bahrain since the crisis began, with a particular concern for the role of women. Here's my window into their story, from the start:
Wednesday, February 16, 3:30 a.m. The phone rings at the home of a 40-year-old expat and mother of two children. Her friend on the line says, "Look outside! The funeral procession for the second Bahraini man who was killed in the clashes with the police is passing by the back entrance of the compound." The expat runs up to the roof with her husband to check out the scene. She's so moved that in a split second she decides to throw something over her pajamas, grab her largest Canon camera and dash out with the friend who called her. They spot protesting Bahraini women at the back of the procession. "The women were very friendly", and "they immediately wanted to tell me their story", says the expat mother. "My friend and I walked with the procession into a small village along with the other reporters. It was a very powerful experience."
Thursday, February 17, 8 a.m. A first-year university student, 18-year-old Zainab Ahmed, is one of four kids and a first-time protestor. "Sixty percent of the protestors are women," she says. "The reason for this is that a lot of men are in jail or dead and 15-year-old boys are just picked off the street and tortured."
Zainab's entire family–including her father, sister and aunt–had been in the medical tent caring for the wounded until 3 a.m. this morning. Zainab herself was subjected to tear gas by the riot police in the medical tent, which is the first place the police attacked. When she wanted to post online the fact that 2,000 protestors had shown up, the Internet was shut off. She passionately explains the purpose of the protests:
It is about poverty, the lack of jobs and housing. It is about the discrimination against locally born Bahrainis and preferences [in jobs, housing, university positions,etc.] granted to naturalized Bahrainis, who come from Yemen, Jordan, Pakistan and India. They are granted citizenship after only a year of residence even though the constitution requires 15 years of residency prior to being granted citizenship.
The police in Bahrain, for example, are almost entirely immigrant, because the regime does not trust its own people. Imagine the reaction in the U.S. if immigration policy preferentially gave jobs to an unlimited number of border-crossers. And the economics in Bahrain–a very rich country–are dismal for many citizens.
The protestors have a new political vision, says Zainab, "We want to elect our prime minister [the current one has been in power for 40 years]. We want democracy. We want jobs, housing, food and clean water. We demand peace and justice."
Zainab says the regime's tactics are intolerable: "[It] attacks women and kids on the streets. It accuses the protestors of using swords and bullets, but that is not true." Dirty tricks abound: Video footage of protestors using weapons was broadcast 14 hours after it supposedly occured, but Zainab is convinced that the government needlessly inserted the implements into the scene of crime, fudging the facts and falsely accusing the protestors. "A nine year-old girl was killed. She's a child, not a threat," says Zainab.
When asked about the protestors' chances of success, Zainab is unflinching:
People won't stop now. This is not about a Shia/Sunni divide. This is a struggle for all Bahrainis. It is about securing rights for the Bahrainis. It's about youth and a democratic future for the nation. We are not just following in the footsteps of other countries where protestors launched a revolution. We have our own demands. This is a protest movement. It has no leaders. It is supported by all Bahrainis and the youth.
Friday, February 18, 9:30 a.m. The expat mother writes:
Things have turned very ugly here. A woman I met yesterday called me in tears. It is heartbreaking. … We will be safe in our compound, having stocked up on more provisions today. I am really upset by how things are being handled here. There is no justification for attacking sleeping people in today's world [200 were wounded and five killed while sleeping in the square]."
Friday, February 19, 5 p.m. Zainab calls, saying she is attending the prayers on the third day for those who were killed in the protest. She is furious because now the King's supporters–Indians, Yemenis and Egyptians–are protesting, causing congestion, honking their horns. Yet, they are untouched and not harassed by riot police. "Why the double standard?" asks Zainab.
Bahrain has turned much uglier than Egypt, because here the government seems not even to share the sense of national identity of its people. And this is where the U.S. bases its fleet in the Middle East.
Saturday, February 27. Bahrain is one of the Arab nations whose pathway remains least clear after the initial flurry of protests. This morning I call my friend, the expat mother in Bahrain. "Do you think youth, technology and women are playing a leadership role in the protests in Bahrain?" I ask. She replies with a resounding "YES":
Youth sparked the fervor. Twitter and Facebook flagged the key issues. At the roundabout on Thursday night, it seemed like the whole country was out –lots of men, women, children and entire villages poured out to participate.
Another source, a professional in the finance industry, said the protestors are speaking in voices ranging from "down with the regime" to "we want a constitutional monarchy." He believes the government has made concessions by getting rid of three ministers, distributing monetary compensation and releasing some prisoners. The biggest challenge, he says is that "the opposition does not have a unified voice." But he ends optimistically, "There is potential for a good resolution."
So the roller-coaster for Bahraini women continues.
Shahnaz Taplin Chinoy is board chair of the Muslim Women's Fund.
Image of Bahrain protests from Wikimedia Commons.


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I have written often about the connection between CRM and economics, almost as if one explains the other. While I still believe it in part, my thinking has evolved and become more nuanced over the last 15 years to the point that today I want to discuss my evolution.
Social science is for me the obvious metaphor for CRM, but which social science? For starters, we could choose from economics, psychology or sociology and rule out things like history, law, geography and linguistics except as supporting tools. Political science? Please. Anthropology is on the fence, but I'm going to toss it out for reasons that might become clear below.
Bubbling Over
The first era of CRM can rightly be explained by economics. The market was new, and there was a stampede to get CRM because it was needed to administer all of the new business generated by the IT revolution. New markets and new categories were forming left and right.
In a way, CRM became both a child of those times and an enabler. The dominant metaphor of those early markets was the hockey stick — exponential growth, Say's law, and economics ran the show.
However, that was a bubble — or actually, a series of bubbles. We serially went from automating one business function to another until the whole shebang was undergirded by silicon and software.
Phase two, or the second era of CRM, was psychological. We used CRM to track what people did and attempted to predict what they'd do next based on their past behavior. I thought it was creepy. The phrase, "People do logical things for emotional reasons," neatly encapsulates this time. It was the time of the early and late majority adopters taking on the technology revolution's cornucopia.
Independent Action
The third era, which we now are living through, might be considered the social era, but that has more to do with sociology than with the dominant technology of the day. I don't think you can explain today with either economics or psychology alone. Unlike economics, the markets are not moving based on the actions of rational individuals, at least not exclusively. Neither are they moving based on psychology — though many are the analysts who see an individual hand in the form of worry in many market trends.
One of the primary questions of sociology is how people are motivated. Are their actions determined by and within the social structures they inhabit (social class, religion, gender, ethnicity, political and economic persuasion, user groups, etc.) or are they determined by agency, the ability to act on one's free will? It's a trick question because there's an element of each.
Before the Internet, I would have said structure dominates, but more than 20 years later it is clear that the Web enabled many of us to exercise agency by breaking free of dependencies on vendors and substituting our own information-gathering and the counsel of others.
There's a long history of independent action's eruptions throughout western civilization since the Industrial Revolution, and you can look it up. However, my point is that agency reached business only about 20 years ago, and it has been causing disruptions ever since.
Social media, at its best, has merely accelerated this independence — but it also has provided a kind of false structure to vendors that think they can leverage it simply as a better, faster, cheaper approach to broadcast communications.
The Pendulum Swing
The ancient Greek philosopher Protagoras once said, "Man is the measure of all things." By that he meant that there are no objective or absolute standards that exist external to us, but all things by which we are measured must come from within us.
The phrase was revived during the Renaissance and applies to the sociology of business today — and to my contention that sociology is CRM's motive force. The social revolution is its own renaissance, and like the original, it puts the human — the customer — at the center of everything.
Social media is also creating its own structure in the form of communities, though, and in this we can see a pendulum swinging back from agency as the determinant of action in society.
The end of Net neutrality may be an early warning sign of agency's relative demise and structure's re-ascent. Structure might provide greater stability, but that can lead to a boring consistency and higher prices as our groups exert their own gravitational pull back to the safe, unexamined center.
Curiously, I think we're at a crossroads. We don't yet know whether structure or agency will win, and the outcome will be determined by whether we continue exercising agency to find our own answers or take the easy path of listening to social media's increasingly vendor-dominated echo chamber.


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Monday, June 15, 2015
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to join me in my quest to find out as much as possible about these all but forgotten artists.
Each case will be ongoing, with new information added as we receive it. Please feel free to add whatever evidence you may have on the case to the 'comments' section, or you can e-mail me with additional photos, label scans, music or whatever...
- Funky 16 Corners
- Home of the Groove
- In Dangerous Rhythm
- soul sides
- Deep Soul Heaven
- Soul Cellar
- Downtown Soulville
- Stepfather of Soul
- Just Moving On
- Feel It
- The Singing Bones
- Brown Eyed Handsome Man
- The Vinyl Word
- Roy C Forever
- Carolina Soul
- It's Great Shakes
- Memphis Music Confidential
- Georgia Soul
- New York Soul Recordings
- The Blush Orgainzation
- Soul Discovery Radio
- Soul Spectrum
- the tofu hut
- Weblog Gazette R&B Review
- The Roots Canal
- SoulGeneration
- R&B Discographies
- The Funk Files
- jukebox mafia
- Benn loxo du taccu
- The Soul Club Jukebox
- Free Hiphop Now


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I think this is a fair description of the racial narrative of the shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman:
George Zimmerman (1) shot Trayvon Martin (2) because a black teenager in a hoodie is frightening (3) to whites, as proven by (4) Zimmerman's description of Martin as suspicious because he was black, and (5) Zimmerman's use of the phrase "f-ing coons", (6) in a classic case of racial profiling, (7) inspired by a climate of hate stoked by Republican "right-wing" rhetoric.
What is left of this narrative based upon what currently is publicly known?
(1) True, George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin.
(2) There is nothing to indicate that wearing a hoodie had anything to do with why Zimmerman considered Martin suspicious. The reason given by Zimmerman in the initial 911 call, before he possibly could have known how the evening would end or how a racial narrative would develop, did not mention the hoodie. The hoodie only was mentioned after the 911 dispatcher asked what the suspicious person was wearing.
(3) Zimmerman's mother is Hispanic, and Zimmerman self-identified as Hispanic. That's not to say that a Hispanic person cannot harbor racial animosity towards blacks, but there is nothing to indicate that Zimmerman harbored such animosity, and in fact, there is evidence to suggest otherwise.
(4) Zimmerman did not describe Martin's race in the initial 911 phone call until the dispatcher asked the race of the suspicious person, at which point Zimmerman said he "looks black." The audio broadcast by NBC News omitted this intervening question to make it appear as if Zimmerman stated that Martin was suspicious because he was black.
(5) The assertion that Martin used the racial epithet "coons" is subject to serious doubt. CNN hired three audio experts, only one of whom believed the word was used. In the Affidavit of Probable Cause, two state investigators swore under oath that Zimmerman said "f-ing punks."
(6) In the Affidavit of Probable Cause, the State of Florida alleged that Martin was "profiled" by Zimmerman, but did not accuse Zimmerman of profiling Martin based on race. Given how freely the State exaggerated known facts in the Affidavit (for example, asserting that the 911 dispatcher "instructed Zimmerman not to" follow Martin, when in fact the dispatcher only said "we don't need you to do that"), it is reasonable to believe that the State is not comfortable assigning racial motivation to the reason why Zimmerman found Martin suspicious.
(7) Zimmerman is a registered Democrat.
The net result of a fair assessment of the racial narrative of the case is that there is no racial narrative based on currently known facts. There are only assumptions and speculation drawn from historical events and experiences in which George Zimmerman was not involved.
This case is where it always should have been, about the known fact that George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin, and whether that shooting was legally justified, or an unlawful homicide.
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Sriracha Saga
One Texan's spicy plan to save the best condiment ever: Sriracha
In life, there are certain truths: California and Texas will always be rivals, and all food tastes better with Sriracha.
These truths inspired one Texas Republican to launch a social media campaign to move the embattled Huy Fong Foods factory (creator of this spicy miracle) from its current location in Irwindale, California, to Texas. Residents of Irwindale have complained that emissions from production of the heaven-sent sauce is causing watery eyes and bouts of coughing.
The complaints are to be expected, considering we all know Californians can be a bit, ahem, soft.
"It's a little silly in some people's minds, but this is a serious initiative to grow and bolster the economy," says Rep. Jason Villalba.
The complaints led to a temporary moratorium of Sriracha production in November by state lawmakers. In December, the California Department of Public Health ordered Huy Fong to stop shipments of the sauce while the department investigates whether the uncooked Sriracha is safe for consumption.
(More like California Department of Wet Blankets. Am I right?)
Here in Texas, land of the spicier the better, that didn't sit right with Dallas Rep. Jason Villalba who, afraid of life eating bland sandwiches and boring soups, sent a letter to Huy Fong Foods offering to move the factory to North Texas. "I use this product regularly," says Villalba. "I spend a lot of time in mom-and-pop Vietnamese restaurants, and I eat [Sriracha] almost daily."
And so on January 7, Villalba sent a letter to David Tran, CEO of Huy Fong Foods, and included a few key Texas lawmakers in the correspondence, including Gov. Rick Perry, who has unabashedly pursued California-based companies in an attempt to get them to move their business to Texas.
Citing over-regulation in California and Texas' business-friendly climate as key incentives in his letter to Tran, Villalba writes:
I want you to know that there is a viable alternative available should you choose to pursue it. The Great State of Texas would welcome you and your employees with open arms if you would consider moving the operation of Huy Fong Foods to Texas.
And though it may seem like a joke, Villalba says the economic impact of bringing a lucrative company like Huy Fong to the Lone Star State is anything but funny. "You're talking a significant number of jobs," he says. "[Huy Fong] has produced millions of bottles [of Sriracha] over the past few years. They could bring maybe 500 jobs to North Texas."
Although it's important to note that 500 jobs is just one representative's guess, what is certain is that a company like Huy Fong brings with it a variety of employment opportunities, everything from chile farming to manufacturing work to executive-level positions.
Since sending his letter, Villalba has set off on an aggressive social media campaign. On January 7, he took to Twitter to sound the battle cry:
As a pho connoisseur, I couldn't stand by and let California over-regulation jeopardize my favorite Vietnamese soup. http://t.co/GDkq8DTs64
— Jason Villalba (@JasonVillalba) January 7, 2014Oddly, Villalba isn't the first Texas politician to try and persuade Huy Fong to set up shop in the Lone Star State. Denton City Councilman Kevin Roden launched a social media campaign in October to convince the Sriracha manufacturer that its "hipster credibility" would fit in well in the college town.
Though Villalba would prefer the company to set up shop in North Texas, he says he would understand if they picked another spot — as long as it's in Texas. "I represent Dallas, so what's good for Texas is good for Dallas," he says. "We would lobby to have the facility in North Texas, but if they went somewhere else, I'd be okay with that."
As of this morning, Huy Fong Foods and Tran have yet to respond to Villalba's letter, though the representative says he is preparing to bring a handful of "Texas dignitaries" to the Southern California-based company if they do show interest.
"It's a little silly in some people's minds, but this is a serious initiative to grow and bolster the economy," Villalba says. "Any time there is an attractive company and they could do bigger and better things in Texas, you can bet we're going after it."


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Believe it or not, just seeing the American Flag makes people MORE LIKELY TO VOTE REPUBLICAN. And this lasts up to 8 months into the future!! Pull out those flags folks!!
As a visitor to the USA, one sometimes gets the feeling that it's hard to move or look around without seeing a flag. They are seemingly everywhere, an omnipresent reminder of national identity. But the star-spangled banner is more than a symbol; it can also influence minds in unexpected ways. Travis Carter from the University of Chicago has found that when people think about voting decisions, the mere sight of the American flag can subtly shift their political views… towards Republicanism. It's an effect that holds in both Democrats and Republicans, it affects actual votes, and it lasts for at least 8 months.
In the run-up to the 2008 US presidential election, Carter recruited a group of around 200 volunteers and asked them about their political views. A month or so later, he split them into two groups that were comparable in terms of their political beliefs, voting intentions and other variables. Both groups rated how likely they were to vote for either the Democrat Barack Obama or the Republican John McCain on an online questionnaire. The questionnaires were identical except for one small detail – in the top left corner of the screen, one group saw a small American flag and the other saw nothing.
That tiny difference was enough to swing their voting preferences. Carter found that the volunteers who saw the tiny flag became more likely to vote for McCain than Obama (relative to their answers at the start of the experiment). They claimed to feel more positive towards the Republicans and even when Carter tested their unconscious atittudes, a small Republican bias still came through.
After the election, Carter contacted the volunteers again and asked them who they actually voted for. He found that those who saw the flag were less likely to have voted for Obama than those who didn't (73% versus 84%). They were also more likely to think that the media were unduly harsh in their treatment of McCain. Remember that there were no differences in the political leanings of the two groups before one of them saw the flag-bearing questionnaire.
Finally, in July 2009, Carter caught up with his volunteers one last time. Even though eight months had passed since half of them saw the tiny flags on-screen, these recruits still showed some Republican bias. They were less happy about Obama's job performance than their peers, less warm about other liberal leaders, and even held slightly more conservative views. (Bear in mind that in this final round, only a third of the original sample answered Carter's call; however, both the flag and no-flag groups were equally represented).
The effect of Carter's simple questionnaire is stark in both its size and duration He writes, "A single exposure to an unobtrusive American flag shifted participants' voting intentions, voting behavior attitudes, and beliefs toward the Republican end of the ideological spectrum." This was true whether the volunteers identified as liberal or conservative – people from both ends of the spectrum shifted towards Republicanism.
This isn't the first time that a national flag has provoked such a striking effect in a psychological study. In 2007, Ran Hassin (who led Carter's study) found that the sight of an Israeli flag could affect the attitudes of people involved in the Israeli-Palestine conflict. The flag appeared too briefly to be consciously seen, but still it drove the volunteers towards a more moderate stance in the political center. And the brief flash of flag even shifted the volunteers' votes.
But there is one important difference between the two studies: the Israeli flag pushed people towards the political center, but the US one shifted people to the right. Why?
Perhaps the volunteers moved towards the dominant party at the time? Carter thinks not. In the spring of 2010, with Obama a year in power, Carter recruited 70 people and asked them to look at four photographs. Half the people saw buildings with flags in front of them; the others saw photos where the flags had been digitally removed. Even though the two groups had the same spectrum of political beliefs beforehand, the flag group shifted towards a Republican worldview after seeing the photos. It doesn't seem to matter who is sitting in the White House at the time.
Instead, Carter suggests three alternative explanations. First, it's possible that the flag does shift people to a more moderate position. Carter's recruits tended to be more liberal than conservative, so if they all moved towards the political center that would come across as a shift to the Republican end. The fact that conservative volunteers shifted further to the right argues against this, but it would be simple enough to test by repeating the study with a group of predominantly Republican volunteers.
Second, people might associate the American flag with Republicans more than Democrats. Carter demonstrated as much in a small pilot study of 50 people – they associated brandishing the flag with Republicans more than Democrats. And indeed, previous studies have found that conservative Americans are more like to own or display a flag than liberals are. Carter writes, "The American flag conjures up Republican beliefs and attitudes, and these primes collectively push people in the Republican direction."
Third, people might simply believe that the average American is more conservative than they are. Carter argues that people associate national flags with the archetypal citizen, and if they see a flag, they might shift their attitudes towards that imaginary every-American.
Fly those American Flags my friends! You can read the rest of the story here.


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Visit Our Properties and Find Your Next Home
We invite you to visit your next home. Complete the form to schedule a showing of any of the properties available in our inventory.
After you complete the form, one of our friendly team members will be in contact with you to set up a time.
"Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great."
— John D. Rockefeller
"You can dream, create, design, and build the most beautiful place in the world, but it requires people to make it a reality."
--Walt Disney
"If one advances confidently in the direction of his own dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."
— Henry David Thoreau.
"The only failure lies in failure to start."
—Harold Blake Walker


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Semi-automatic testing
When programmers automate something, we often want to go whole-hog and automate everything. But it's good to remember there's still a place for manual testing with machine assistance: instead of expending exponential effort to automate everything, automate the easy bits and hard-code answers to the hard research problems. When I was compiling the following graph of sources of test data, I noticed a striking polarization at the ends of "automated" and "non-automated."
An ideal test framework would support combining all of these data sources and all of these testing mechanisms. Some novel approaches include:
- Randomly generated test-cases with manual verification. Obviously you won't be able to hand verify thousands of test-cases, but a few concrete examples can do wonders for documentation purposes, and random generation prevents us from only picking "nice" inputs.
- Reference implementation as previous version of the code. To the limit, you automatically accept the output of an old implementation and save it to your test suite, and when a test starts failing you the framework asks you to check the output, and if it's "better" than before you overwrite the old test data with the new. GHC's test suite has something along these lines.
- You've written lots of algebraic laws, which you are using Quickcheck to verify. You should be able to swap out the random generator with a deterministic stream of data from a sampled data source. You'd probably want a mini-DSL for various source formats and transforming them into your target representation. This also works great when you've picked manual inputs, but exactly specifying the output result is a pain because it is large and complicated. This is data-driven testing.
- Non-fuzzing testing frameworks like Quickcheck and Smallcheck are reasonably good at dealing with runtime exceptions but not so much with more critical failures like segmentation faults. Drivers for these frameworks should take advantage of statelessness to notice when their runner has mysteriously died and let the user know the minimal invocation necessary to reproduce the crash—with this modification, these frameworks subsume fuzzers (which are currently built in an ad hoc fashion.)
It would be great if we didn't have to commit to one testing methodology, and if we could reuse efforts on both sides of the fence for great victory.


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How Content Transforms Salespeople [Infographic]
Forget the sleazy salesperson stereotype.
Today's most successful salespeople act as thought leaders and industry experts, connecting prospects with content. They challenge buyers to be on the cutting-edge of their industries.
But unfortunately, many people still harbor a negative perception of sales reps. So what's a salesperson to do? Load up on content.
This infographic explains how content helps sales teams build relationships that lead to revenue.


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BEIJING (AP) — China is ordering the closure of live poultry markets in its south-central regions as it grapples with the worst outbreak of bird flu in years that has killed at least 87 people.
State media reported on Feb. 17 that the National Health and Family Planning Commission ordered closures anywhere with cases of the H7N9 strain.
Most reported cases have been found in the densely populated Yangtze and Pearl river deltas from Shanghai to Hong Kong. Those areas generally experience mild, wet winters that are ideal for the virus transmission. In all, more than 250 cases have been reported from 16 provinces and regions, including as far away as the southwestern province of Yunnan.
The death toll since the start of the year has been unmatched since at least 2013.
In addition to the market closures, the commission is training health workers in the screening, early diagnosis and treatment of the disease, while urging people to avoid contact with live birds.
H7N9 is considered to be less virulent than the H5N1 strain that the World Health Organization has linked to hundreds of deaths worldwide over the last decade. H7N9 is not believed to be transmitted between humans, but rather by infected poultry.
China has gained extensive experience in dealing with such crises since being hit by the 2003 SARS outbreak that was believed to have originated among animals in southern China. A preference among Chinese for live-bought, freshly-slaughtered poultry complicates the government's efforts to eradicate such diseases.
The official Xinhua News Agency said the market closures this time have "greatly reduced the number of new infections in many regions," citing Ni Daxin, deputy director of the emergency response center at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.


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On several of my websites, I noticed a significant number of inbound links coming from irrelevant websites.
For example, one of my site is about travel and one of site that links to it is about male-enhancing pills. The only reason I know of this site is that it appears in my server logs as referrer a certain small percentage of the time. Invariably this site and others that do the same seem to have a bunch (roughly 10-30) of irrelevant links scattered on their pages and some of them happen to point to my site. Now since the links go from their site to mine, it is certainly not about luring traffic towards them, so why would they do that?
More importantly, does this have a negative impact on my site's search-engine and and Google ranking? If so, what can I do about it since I have no affiliation or contact with the offending websites?


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Team rebuilding world's first website
(CNN) -- Twenty years ago, a team of researchers shared the Web with the world. Now they want to show a generation that grew up online what it was like in its earliest days.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the date it released, for free, the technology and software needed to run a Web server.
In honor of the anniversary, a team has been assembled to recreate a working version of the first website, a how-to guide hosted by the project's creators.
The organization issued a statement on April 30, 1993, that announced the release of that Web to the public.
British physicist Tim Berners-Lee created and named the Web (also commonly called "W3" for short in those days) in 1989 at CERN. Originally, it was designed as a way for scientists at different universities and other institutes to share information.
"Vague, but exciting," Berners-Lee's supervisor wrote on the cover of a proposal while greenlighting the project.
By 1993, there were roughly 400 known Web servers. But the World Wide Web accounted for only about 1% of Internet traffic. The rest was remote access to computer networks, e-mail and file transfers from one computer to another.
Since then it has, obviously, become a constant presence in the lives of people around the world. Today, there are somewhere around 630 million websites.
"There is no sector of society that has not been transformed by the invention, in a physics laboratory, of the Web," said Rolf Heuer, CERN's director-general. "From research to business and education, the Web has been reshaping the way we communicate, work, innovate and live. The Web is a powerful example of the way that basic research benefits humankind."
The first website was, not surprisingly, devoted to the Web project itself, describing how to use it and set up a Web server. It was hosted on Berner-Lee's NeXt computer -- the product developed at a company founded by Steve Jobs before he returned to Apple.
That computer is still at CERN's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. But it no longer hosts that first website.
CERN's team aims to change that, restoring the earliest versions of files that were on the site as well as making it a home for stories about those formative days. They'll be combing CERN's servers for data preserved from that time.


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Editor's Note: Whitney Johnson is the author of "Dare, Dream, Do: Remarkable Things Happen When You Dare to Dream," the founding partner of Clay Christensen's investment firm Rose Park Advisors, and speaks frequently on early-stage investing and leadership. You can follow her on Twitter @johnsonwhitney.
Story highlights
Our careers are a hero's journey -- a call to adventure, argues Whitney Johnson
Accepting the call to a new adventure may involve taking a demotion or pay cut, she says
To be the hero in your own story, seek out the right kind of mentors
I am a long-time fan of reality television: first American Idol, then, So You Think You Can Dance, Project Runway, and Master Chef.
The mythologist Joseph Campbell provides an explanation for the success of these programs: "A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder; fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won; the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man."
Isn't this what happens in reality TV?
We see people who are hoping to be called out of their everyday lives to an adventure, to be tested on a road of trials in hopes of obtaining the ultimate boon. Watching, we find pieces of ourselves mirrored in the contestants; we, too, are on the mythic journey of a hero.
Our careers are a hero's journey – a call to adventure
Early on, it's fairly easy to see yourself as the hero. I, for example, fancied myself as Tess McGill, of the movie Working Girl, having started out as a secretary. But mid-career, accepting a beckoning call is far more difficult. You likely have achieved some success; the stakeholders in your life, including you, may be rather attached to the status quo.
Mid-career, the "another day, another dollar mindset" can quickly sideline us if we avoid challenges and the growth our work can bring. What's important to remember here is that the dialing-it-in plateau can be a precipice: we avoid a career-killing plateau by accepting the call to a new adventure.
It may mean taking a pay-cut, a demotion in terms of job title, or simply striking out into the uncharted waters of entrepreneurship. And daunting though it may be, we keep in our intellectual back pocket one of the findings of disruptive innovation theory: the odds of success are six times higher, the revenue opportunity 20 times greater, when we disrupt, and accept the call to adventure.
See also: Is workplace boredom 'the new stress?'
A road of trials or succession of tough experiences is inevitable
Often they will come from where we least expect them, one obstacle being entitlement.
We may believe, for example, that we have the right to a perk or promotion simply because we have shown up (when we played soccer as kids we all got trophies whether we won or lost, played or sat on the bench; why wouldn't this also be true at work?) Mid-career, we may be inclined to become benevolent dictators to our staff, deciding consensus isn't required. After all, we are literally en-titled.
In battling the dragons of entitlement and complacency, you become the hero of your career. When you make and own your choices, fearlessly facing your challenges, you become someone whom others want to follow: "leader" is just another name for hero.
See also: Jumping off the career ladder
You are not meant to undertake this journey alone
Most heroes in literature and film have a guide or a trainer: Frodo had Gandalf, Luke Skywalker had Yoda, King Arthur had Merlin – guides, who aren't about exploiting you for their gain, but for whom your boon is also theirs.
If you want to be the hero in your own story, seek out and cultivate the right kind of mentors. I could never have made the leap from secretary to professional without the sponsorship of a mentoring boss. If you are a professional woman, a guide is even more essential.
We often measure the success of our career by how much money we make and our job title, and those are important yardsticks – and an undeniable piece of achieving the boon. But a true hero looks to the horizon with a vision of the legacy he or she can leave – what happens in the life of the company, the people you worked with once you are long gone.
Ultimately the real boon of a hero's journey is not that others will believe you are a hero, but when you look in the mirror, you will see one.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Whitney Johnson.


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Plan To Expand US Auto Loan Program Faces Bumpy Road
By Ayesha Rascoe and Deepa Seetharaman
WASHINGTON/DETROIT, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Democratic proposals to widen the scope of the U.S. Department of Energy's loan program for advanced cars could falter in the face of Republican opposition in Congress.
Last week, the DOE said it was planning "an active outreach campaign†for its Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing loan program, created in 2007 to spur the development of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles.
The department said it has more than $15 billion still on hand to dole out to potential applicants. Currently the program is limited mostly to manufacturers of light duty passenger vehicles or their components.
Two Democratic Senators have introduced a bill to allow component manufacturers further down the supply chain and makers of efficient medium and heavy duty trucks and buses to also be eligible for funding.
"This program has helped American companies retool their plants to create new high-tech products and new American jobs, including helping companies bring jobs back from Mexico,†said Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat from Michigan.
Stabenow introduced the legislation with Ron Wyden, the Democratic chairman of the Senate energy committee.
It is unclear exactly how much interest the administration would attract without expanding the parameters of the program, especially while holding applicants to higher financial standards and given political divisions.
The agency promised more than $8 billion in funding to five companies between 2009 and 2011, including a $5.9 billion loan to Ford Motor Co, $1.5 billion to Nissan and $465 million to Tesla Motors Inc.
Tesla repaid its loan earlier this year, but the program's failures have garnered considerably more attention.
This spring, Republicans blasted the DOE for its failure to vet Fisker Automotive, a maker of pricey plug-in hybrid sports cars now struggling to find a buyer and repay nearly $200 million in government loans. The Department promised the company a $529 million loan, but it froze Fisker's credit line in mid-2011.
Last month, the Department put up for auction its non-performing loan to the now-closed Vehicle Production Group LLC, which received a nearly $50 million loan.
"DOE's in a really tough spot,†said Ryan Fitzpatrick, a policy adviser for think tank Third Way's clean energy program. "They're operating with a limited amount of financial tools.â€
In the last few years, other companies, including Chrysler Group LLC, abandoned their DOE loan applications to pursue other options. Some companies said they were discouraged by the government's slow and opaque loan process.
It would help to expand the program to heavy duty vehicles or to allow loans to go toward building out fueling infrastructure for advanced vehicles, Fitzpatrick said.
Republicans in Congress have opposed direct government investment in solar companies, electric car companies and others that would help achieve the administration's clean energy goals, saying such investments amount to picking winners and losers.
Darrell Issa, the head of the House oversight committee, who has led investigations into failures in the government's loan portfolio, said the auto loan program was a "perfect example of government waste.â€
"At worst, the program threw good taxpayer money after bad,†the California Congressman said in a statement. "At best, it has risked Americans' hard earned money on projects that didn't need it or didn't truly advance vehicle technology.â€


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mLife ::: What is mLife? Anybody else seen these ads? I was in DC Monday and Tuesday of this week, and they were literally glued to every street corner. Airport kiosks, TV ads, full page spreads in USA Today and other newspapers.
What is it? According to the web site, we'll find out February 3. Personally, I like Randy B.'s entry for what mLife might be:
I think mLife is a new sports drink that will help you lose weight, get rich and make beautiful bikini models fall in love with you just for drinking it
Randy B. TX


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Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking is an English astrophysicist who was born in 1942. He is a leader in the fields of theoretical physics and cosmology (the origins of the universe).
Hawking is famous for his studies of black holes, bodies of matter so dense and compact that their gravitational fields trap even light inside. He theorized that black holes in fact do emit some type of radiation and can eventually blow up.
In his early twenties, Hawking was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, and today is confined to a wheelchair, unable to speak. Nevertheless, he communicates his brilliant ideas with the aid of computers and holds a professorship at the University of Oxford.


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1. Never let one bad day make you feel like you have a bad life.
2. Do small things with huge amounts of love.
3. Don't waste your time being upset about something you can't change. Start again right now and do it better this time.
4. The best thing that you can do in life is follow your intuition. Take risks. Don't just make the safe and easy choices because you're afraid of what might happen. If you do, nothing will ever happen.
5. Life is like a rainbow, you need both the sun and the rain to make its colors appear.
Here's to a happy Wednesday!
Rachel xo
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 // reminders


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WEST OCEAN CITY — Authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding yesterday's death of Carey Flynn, owner of 707 Sports Bar and Grill in West Ocean City.
Sources say Flynn, who opened the bar last year, was hospitalized and died on Thursday morning after having an altercation with a man who was allegedly urinating outside his establishment.
There was no word if the man involved in the incident had been apprehended.


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RE: [Numpy-discussion] one-offset arrays
Indices in Fortran can be defined at the time an array is declared, so Fortran is not necessarily "one-indexed". Kevin Rodgers Northrop Grumman Ryan Aeronautical -----Original Message----- From: Eric Nodwell [mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2001 10:01 PM To: firstname.lastname@example.com Subject: Re: [Numpy-discussion] one-offset arrays
Does anyone have a simple method of using one-offset arrays? Specifically, can I define an array "a" so that a[1] refers to the first element?
Inherit from the UserArray and redefine slicing to your hearts content.
Without one-offset indexing, it seems to me that Python is minimally useful for numerical computations. Many, perhaps the majority, of numerical algorithms are one-indexed. Matlab for example is one-based for this reason. In fact it seems strange to me that a "high-level" language like Python should use zero-offset lists.
Wow, that is a pretty condescending-sounding statement, though I'm sure you didn't mean it that way. Python is indeed being used for quite serious numerical computations. I have been using Python for quite some time for Numerical work and find it's zero-based indexing combined with the leave-last-one-out slicing notation to be much more convenient.
Oops, what I really need is a wet-ware (i.e. brain) macro which enforces the correct order of the pair (think,write,send)! The above unconsidered comments arose from the sequence (frustration,write,send,think,regret). ;) Obviously there is a lot of numerical work being done with python and people are very happy with it. But for me I still think it would be "minimally useful" without 1-indexed arrays. Here's why: In my view, the most important reason to prefer 1-based indexing versus 0-based indexing is compatibility. For numerical work, some of the languages which I use or have used are Matlab, Mathematica, Maple and Fortran. These are all 1-indexed. (C is by nature 0-indexed because it is so close to machine architecture, but with a little bit of not-entirely-clean pointer manipulation, you can easily make 1-indexed arrays and matrices.) Obviously Python can't be compatible with these languages in a strict sense, but like most people who do some programming work, I've built up a library of my own commonly used routines specific to my work; in general it's a trivial matter to translate numerical routines from one language to the another if translation is just a matter of substituting of one set of syntactical symbols and function names for anther. However it can be damn tricky to convert 1-indexed code to 0-indexed code or visa versa without introducing any errors- believe me! (Yes it's possible to call nearly any language from nearly any other language these days so in theory you don't have to recode, but there are lots of reasons why often recoding is the preferable route.) The other reason for choosing 1-based indexing is to keep the code as near to the standard notation as possible. This is one of the advantages of using a high level language - it approximates the way you think about things instead of the way the computer organizes them. Of course, this can go either way depending on the quantity in question: as a simple example a spatial vector (x,y,z) is conventionally labelled 1,2,3 (1-indexed), but a relativistic four-vector with time included (t,x,y,z) is conventionally labelled 0,1,2,3 (0-indexed). So ideally one would be able to choose the indexing-type case-by-case. I'm sure that computer programmers will argue vehemently that code which mixes both 0-indexed and 1-indexed arrays is hard to understand and maintain, but for experts in a particular field who are accustomed to certain ingrained notations, it is the code which breaks the conventional notation which is most error-prone. In my case, I'm dealing at the moment with crystal structures with which are associated certain conventional sets of vectors and tensors - all 1-indexed by convention. I find it a delicate enough task to always get the correct vector or tensor without having to remember that d[2] is actually d3. Defining d1,d2,d3 is not convenient because often the index itself needs to be calculated. I guess if I understood the reason for 0-indexed lists and tuples in Python I would be happier. In normal, everyday usage, sets, collections and lists are 1-indexed (the first item, the second item, the third item, and so on). Python is otherwise such an elegant and natural language. Why the ugly exception of making the user conform to the underlying mechanism of an array being an address plus an offset? All this is really neither here nor there, since this debate, at least as far as Python is concerned, was probably settled 10 years ago and I'm sure nobody wants to hear anything more about it at this point. As you point out, I can define my own array type with inheritance. I will also need my own range command and several other functions which haven't occured to me yet. I was hoping that there would be a standard module to implement this. By the way, what is leave-last-one-out slicing? Is it a[:-1] or is it a[0,...] or is it something else? Eric _______________________________________________ Numpy-discussion mailing list firstname.lastname@example.com http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/numpy-discussion
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Rodgers, Kevin


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More Than Trains
This forum is for pictures and discussion of those aspects of railroads which are, many times, overlooked. Included in this area are infrastructure, people, MOW equipment, and anything else needed to keep the trains running.
Our purpose, here, is for railfans and photographers (frequently one and the same) to look beyond the trains themselves and take note of the surrounding excitement and beauty. For modelers, this can also be a source for those many details that will bring your layout closer to perfection.
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Here's a quick roundup of stories you might have missed recently.
Snowpiercer, Starring Daveed Diggs, Picked Up for Fourth Season
Snowpiercer, the popular TNT series based on the 2013 film of the same name, has been renewed for for a fourth season, according to Variety. Hamilton Tony winner Daveed Diggs stars in the show along with Jennifer Connelly, Sean Bean, Rowan Blanchard, Katie McGuiness and Alison Wright. Returning regulars include Tony winner Lena Hall, Mickey Sumner, Iddo Goldberg, McGuinness, Annalise Basso, Sam Otto, Urbina, Sheila Vand, and Steven Ogg. The second season debuted in January 2021 and the third season recently wrapped filming. More information on the fourth season is to come.
Bernadette Peters & Mandy Patinkin Join Sunday in the Park Talk with James Lapine & Stephen Sondheim
Original Sunday in the Park with George stars Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin will join the musical's creators James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim for Putting It Together: An Evening with James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim, a digital conversation moderated by Christine Baranski. The event is in celebration of Lapine's book Putting It Together, released on August 3, that chronicles the creative process of making the 1984 musical Sunday in the Park with George. Click here for more information.
Broadway-Bound The Notebook Musical Sets World Premiere in Chicago
The Notebook, a Broadway-aimed new musical based on the Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name, will have its world premiere at Chicago Shakespeare Theater from March 15 through April 24, 2022. The new work features music and lyrics by Ingrid Michaelson and a book by Bekah Brunstetter. The musical previously held a starry reading that featured Hailey Kilgore, Vanessa Hudgens, Candy Buckley, Antonio Cipriano, Clifton Duncan and James Naughton. Casting and additional information for the world premiere production is to be announced.
Anthony Rapp to Star in Andy Warhol in Iran at Barrington Stage Company
Broadway's Anthony Rapp is set to take on the title role in a staged reading of Brent Askari's Andy Warhol in Iran this fall. The reading will take place at Barrington Stage Company's Boyd-Quinson Stage in Pittsfield, Massachusetts on August 22 at 8PM. Directed by Reginald L. Douglas, the presentation will also feature Afsheen Misaghi as Farhad and follows the American painter as he visits Iran to take Polaroids of the Empress, only to encounter a young revolutionary who throws his plans into turmoil. The reading is open to the public. Find more information here.


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Thursday, 21 February, 2019 @ 16:06
My Dos and Don'ts
As the MD of a large private investigation company a significant proportion of our business is providing employers with evidence of issues such as unauthorised absence, fraudulent injury claims and in-house theft.
I have also been in business for over 20 years and had my share of employee difficulties in the past.
In my experience, Fair Process and Evidence are the 2 keys to a successful outcome.
If fair disciplinary processes are not followed, an employer remains open to claims of unfair dismissal, even if the evidence is indisputable.
If an employee thinks they are going to be dismissed from their position, they may feel that they have nothing to lose. From personal experience, I know just how important it is to dot the i's and cross the t's.
It can be costly to get wrong – not only to reputation, but financially. Tribunal and compensation claims can be up to a year's salary (or even uncapped in exceptional circumstances).
There are 2 categories of evidence - internal and external.
Internal evidence will typically be the company's own documents. External evidence will be provided by a trusted third party, such as a private investigation company.
To ensure you have a strong evidence trail to present at the hearing, you should:
Your case may also require external evidence, such as that provided by a private investigation company. This can include:
The venue should be private and convenient for the employee.
The employee should also be given adequate time to prepare for the hearing – normally a week is sufficient but this depends on the size and complexity of the case.
Even if the employee chooses to attend alone, they should be reminded of their right to be accompanied by a third party.
Ensure that somebody is present to take minutes and record what is said by both sides.
Plan for plenty of short breaks as hearings can be both stressful and tiring for all involved.
It is important that the hearing follows a proper process.
A manager should be assigned to:
The employee must be given a reasonable opportunity to respond, ask any questions they may have and discuss any documentary evidence that has been provided in support of the company's case.
Just before the meeting closes, the employee should be given a final chance to add comments or questions before proceedings come to an end and the management make their decision.
Whatever the outcome of the hearing it is important to demonstrate that a robust procedure has been followed throughout.
The outcome will depend on a number of factors, including the severity of the employee's actions and the company policies in place.
Finally, it is important to demonstrate that the outcome has been designed to improve performance of the employee, or the company. If the outcome is seen purely as punishment of the employee, this may provide grounds for appeal.
ACAS has a code for carrying out fair procedures with regard to employee disciplinary hearings. The document is dry, but short, and gives more detail on the points raised here. Non-compliance, without good cause, can result in a dismissal being ruled as unfair, and compensation claims can rise by up to 25%.
The document is available here:
If the employee decides to take the company to court for unfair dismissal, it is worth remembering that the more supporting evidence the judge has to consider, the stronger your case will be.
However, if the evidence is strong enough (either that provided by the company, or a private investigation agency), cases frequently conclude without the need for a court hearing.
Thank you. Message sent.


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I visit SO at random times (weekdays, weekend, day, night) and often find that I'm sat waiting for new questions to come in. Is there a way I can run some stats to figure out when (day of week, time of day) the more popular questions are typically asked for a given set of tags?
It seems that at all times of all days, there a lots of localized JS questions asked. Most of these are arguably bad questions and don't really catch my interest. I want to know when it's best for me to visit to be involved in the gems that receive a lot of views and interest.


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Monday, September 24, 2007
Rent Dan Aykroyd's (Allegedly) Haunted House
LOCATION: Woodrow Wilson Drive, Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $30,000 / month
SIZE: 4,828 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Gorgeous English Country celebrity compound behind the gates for total privacy. Extraordinary taste & style, furnished in turn-key condition, fabulous ground, superb pool.
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: For some reason, Your Mama has increasing amounts of information on celebrity owned houses that are available for short and long term lease. For example, we have previously discussed homosexual boy band graduate Lance Bass' house of two swimming pools, we've discussed Faye Dunaway's West Hollywood hideout, and a hundred moons ago, we discussed the spectacular Runyon Canyon residence of Naomi Foner and Stephen Gyllenhaal (parents of famous sibs Maggie and Jake). Today we're going to be letting it fly about venerable comedian and original cast member of Saturday Night Live Dan Aykroyd and actress wifey Donna Dixon's allegedly haunted house high in the Hills of Hollywood.
The secluded "English Country" style residence has a long history of celebrity owners including Beatles drummer Ringo Starr. The property was also called home by one of the most famous mamas that ever was, the corpulent and hugely talented Cass Elliot from the legendary folk rock group The Mamas and the Papas.
Listing information for the 4,828 square foot house indicates there are 5 bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms (property records show 6 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms), and is available on short term lease for $30,000 per month, fully furnished. Listing information shows the couple is willing to negotiate the price on a long term rental. Interestingly, no one seems to want to lease this house. Listing information Your Mama received from a very smart and talented realtor in the valley we'll call Big Bird shows the property has been on the rental market for more than 450 days, which is a very long time.
Oh hunnies, with all due respect to the Aykroyd/Dixon household, Your Mama could not be paid $30,000 a month to live up in this house. And it's not because of that awful kitchen where that horrid and eyeball assaulting floral wallpaper has been stuck to every flat surface in the room including the damn ceiling. Oh, no. The reason Your Mama would not be found sleeping up in this house is because the house is reported to be haunted.
Of course, Your Mama has no peersonal experience of the house being haunted, but Mister Aykroyd, a man with a huge and well known fascination of all things paranormal, claims himself that the house is inhabited by apparitions, stating that a poltergeist has gotten into bed with him (what!?!), turned on the Stairmaster, and moved jewelry across the dresser. He also said, "I'm sure it's Mama Cass because you get the feeling it's a big ghost."
Children, back in our university days, Your Mama lived in a haunted house, and let us tell you, there was no peace to be found in that house. That damn ghost would rattle things, hide things and STEAL things. Yes, we said steal things. I'm telling you the honest truth here babies. Your Mama came home from Latin class one day to find all the drinking cups in the house gone. GONE. Another day we returned home to find all the flatware had vanished. After having a crazy fat lady come over and do a séance in the middle of the night during which the entire second floor of the house heated up to more 90 degrees and the walls began to sweat, Your Mama packed up and moved our belongings out of that scary house right quick.
Anyhoo, despite our passionate love of white sofas, Your Mama finds most of the interior photos of this house to be done up in a boring Pottery Barn 101 style that has collided with a frumpy British woman. Except for that amazing library, which looks like something marvelous and decadent out of a mad Count's castle in Bavaria, or maybe the library in a massive 16-room Park Avenue palace inhabited by an educated and bohemian heiress and her well-traveled and well-read male companion.
The flat and grassy backyard area certainly provides enough space to run the dogs and exercise the children until they drop from exhaustion, and the natural stone pool deck appears to be sufficiently sunny. Your Mama is certainly not keen on that massive chunk of lattice work we see on the end of the house, but we do imagine it's a sun dappled and cool spot to suck down gin and tonics while the children frolic in the pool with their various nannies and security personnel.
Property records reveal that in addition to this Hollywood Hills house, The Canadian born Mister Aykroyd, a co-founder of the House of Blues empire, appears to maintain another Los Angeles residence on Selma Avenue, which records indicate he owns in partnership with his brother Peter, an actor and psychic researcher, whatever that is. We also located residences for Mister Aykroyd in on East 89th Street in New York City, as well as a property on Martha's Vineyard, a favorite East Coast hangout for the rich, famous and discreet. Some reports say that Mister Aykroyd also maintains a summer home in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, around Loughborough Lake.
A March 2002 report in Forbes stated that the couple had put their Hollywood Hills house on the market for $2,500,000. However, property records reveal that the famous couple continue to own the property.
Your Mama wishes the couple all the luck in the world getting this house leased out to someone very rich who does not mind having a phantom crawl into bed with them at night. Certainly in the the strange and eccentric sprawl of Los Angeles, there has to be at least a couple of people curious to know what it's like to live with the ghost of Mama Cass, right?
Sources: Forbes, The Guardian UK, CBC, About.com
11 comments:
good story, looks like it could be a livable house minus the decor & ghost.
- September 24, 2007 at 7:14 AM
WHoo,ooo, whoo, ooo I am haunted by the kitchen wallpaper!
- September 24, 2007 at 7:39 AM
- September 24, 2007 at 8:23 AM
I really and truly think it's laughable that someone would even consider leasing a house at that price.
It's a wonder anyone in LA has money at all. With the price on everything, it would slip through your fingers like water.
I applaud anyone there who refuses to get sucked into these money pits. - September 24, 2007 at 8:24 AM
"boring Pottery Barn 101 style that has collided with a frumpy British woman"
Best descriptive quote evah. - September 24, 2007 at 8:35 AM
The landscaping is quite nice in this house. I don't mind the red room, but the kitchen wallpaper would give me a headache. A ghost wouldn't bother me, just the idea of paying $30K to rent the place. That would terrify.
- September 24, 2007 at 11:10 AM
I'm not feeling that amusing today - I'm a bit HUNGover so I'll be brief. Like Ma-mahh, I once lived in a haunted house. Fortunately it was rented, so I could move out quickly - and did. As for Dan's house, well... its another nice but dull home, and somewhat typical of the larger homes on Woodrow Wilson - not too far from my quite humble abode. I can't imagine what would possess (!) anyone to use that wallpaper anywhere, let alone in the kitchen- which does look like the set for some SNL sketch about soccer moms driven made by the spirit Lillian Vernon. Ghost or no ghost, a house this dated and homely is clearly not worth $30K per month.
- September 24, 2007 at 11:54 AM
- September 24, 2007 at 11:55 AM
Wow, I really like the house. Too bad it's haunted and even a reasonable woman like Mama wouldn't stay there!
I am SO excited to see LAWN and GREEN SPACE on this property. Finally! Actual space for kids and dogs to run and frolic.
I actually love the library, yard, bedroom (of course the buddha is over the bed a la House of Blues decor), pool area, all of it... EXCEPT that kitchen. WHO wallpapers a CEILING??? WTF? I agree with everyone else that the kitchen walls are horrid, but the ceiling is what does me in!! - September 24, 2007 at 12:36 PM
- so_chic_darling said...
I see the ghost of Laura Ashley in that kitchen,not Mama cass!
- September 24, 2007 at 6:27 PM
- Terri said...
Mama- did you go to university in Southern California? I think I lived in the same house... Random thefts, things shaking, electric typewriters suddenly turning on and randomly typing, camera film fogging
- September 25, 2007 at 10:09 PM


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"This page is a digitally archived AccessInfo Announcement"
Article written by Pam Gregory
Everyone is always talking about some new app, and I simply can't keep up!
Recently, I ran across something called the "iPhone App Directory." The British magazine, now in its sixth issue, reviews, rates and lists download costs for apps. I was curious to see how many of the 947 reviewed apps had potential for assisting with most disabilities, and I ended up very pleased and surprised.
Dare I say we might have reached the tipping point in technological universal design? It seemed there were many apps that could be beneficial to people with cognitive disabilities, although interestingly, some of those were not user friendly and therefore not recommended.
It was refreshing to see the number of new educational apps that may help persons with learning disabilities. Knowing that this magazine couldn't cover all the new apps, I launched a search for similar magazines and found a good site that listed endless publicatios that also rate and compare new apps.
Here are some apps that I thought were particularly interesting.
- D2u Transcriber provides dictation and transcription on a mobile phone.
- SendStuffNow offers cloud-based storage.
- Conf provides help for conference attendees by tracking each sessioh, list speakers, lists panels/discussions, and even provides GPS to show how far away you are from each event (Note to self: Download for CSUN conference!).
- ClearRecord Premium is an audio recording app that is able to suppress background noise.
- Wallet Advanced manages your website logins, credit card info and other private information. It has strong encryption so that this information is safe.
- Similarly, there is Password Keeper, which is a simple tool that stores your password and is also secure.
- Flashcards App, teaches new vocabulary, then tests you, and even checks your daily progress.
- Voice Cards are Not Flashcards!! allows you to create voice flash cards with an autoplay and shake option.
- WordWarp (which I actually have) is a game where you create as many words as possible from a selection of letters. If you're stuck, just press the "warp" button and it will help you out. Also, a very useful game for persons with head injuries.
- Pill Time reminds you to take your medications, and breaks up your medications by medication type, ailment concerned, dosage, frequency and the specific time of day.. It also provides a medication countdown, which counts what medicines you have taken, and what you have left to take in a day.
- Living Well with Arthritis provides helpful tips to manage your arthritis. This app was rated superior for usability.· Ithas many features, including routines, basic understanding of your type of arthritis and how it affects your body, and teaches how you can deal with your arthritis better.
- iCanBass offers a guitar interface and allows you to pull strings. This app made me think of Paul Schroeder of the American Foundation for the Blind, who is an avid guitar player.
- Music For Users provides ambient music to affect your brainwaves. This app has is programmed with certain tasks, which act as an "alarm" for project management.
- LocateMeNow provides you with your location, and is user friendly and fast. If I had only had this when I first moved to DC!
- MobileRSS gathers and manages your selected feeds and presents them in one place for easy monitoring.
- Breaking News with Push delivers breaking news. This reminds me of a story Al Sonnenstrahl, a life-long Deaf telecommunications advocate, told me of how, despite being in a car pool and working all morning with colleagues, when RFK was shot after midnight in 1968, he had no idea. His deafness had pushed him out of the information loop..
- PhotoDiary enables you to track your day with photographs, and allows you to add captions to the photos, and date and time-stamp the photo. I would love to see user testing on how people with cognitive disabilities who need help with their daily routine could use this app!
- PhotoMashup has great potential for people who are Deaf and to other visual learners by allowing you to arrange your photos, make montages, rotate, enlarge and move photos, and even provides the ability to include drop shadow and customize border colors.
- iStuff is a highly visual method of managing tasks by providing 12 categories that are named based on time and function. It provies simple calendar views, an in-box for new tasks, tags to work on several tasks together, and bverdue tasks, which require you to pay attention. This task management app is rich in features, and rated high on usability. Another project management tool that is also highly rated is SideTacts, which integrates phone, e-mail and SMS into a single app. It also provides audio, text and video *otes, while continually synching with the basic apps on every off-the-shelf iPhone.
- Easy Group Text allows you to group your contacts and text everyone in that group at the same time. There is a similar app, GroupSMS!, which does the same for SMS. Another app is FogHorn, which is a simple and user-friendly app that allows you to enter phone numbers for multiple people, and hold text chats where everyone sees all the messages. FogHorn also allows you to store your chats, archive your chats online, and add extra information about the participants.
- Today Screen can simplify your day by taking all of your appointments in the iPhone calendar, and putting them into a user-friendly view. It even color codes past, present and future events;
- 15,000 Useful Phrases is perfect for those whose English is a second language. It can provide assistance in the much needed gap between ESL and real English conversations--a great social skills app.
- Lonely Planet San Francisco Guide is a one-stop resource for visiting a city. It is said to be even more helpful than a travel book and received rave reviews. It includes detailed maps (online and offline). I personally love the Lonely Planet guides, and the San Francisco guide is just one of many cities offered. Maptual allows you to view various points of interest on a map using the Open Street Map interface. Like Lonely Planet, Maptual provides information about cities all around the world.
- Find A Pharmacy will locate a pharmacy for you based on your geographic location, indicate how far the pharmacy is, and provides a Google Map to direct you to the pharmacy.
- QuickPaste ranks very high on usability and allows you copy multiple records (the iPhone app limits you to one record at a time) for pasting into other apps. A good tool for everyone, especially for those with hand dexterity issues.
- Pic-Z Tag is great for conference or meeting attendees, especially people with speech disabilities. It lets you design a name tag (templates provided). When you meet someone new, you can just flash your iPhone to introduce yourself.
- Ring Finger is a great speed dialing program that you can program time and automated calling. For example, if you needed to call in to your job coach each day at 1:30 p.m., it will automatically connect you with your job coach at 1:30.
If you have used any of these apps and have found them to provide access, I would love to hear from you. Also, I would love to hear from you about accessible apps that weren't listed-it would be great to have one ongoing list of apps that have disability implications.
Are there any groups that are studying new apps for accessibility? If you're an app developer, let me if you are designing to include the 54 million Americans with disabilities. My next step is to remember my password so I can download some new apps! Happy apping!